Battles
As with most other aspects of the game, battles had some features cut out. Wanting to get something together quickly that worked made it so we had to simplify the process. If we have enough interest, we could incorporate back new features next version.
Biggest differences with previous versions are the fact you MUST wipe the melee layer to win (no more morale / supply routs), there is only one engagement (all 6 turns / rounds are ran one time) and no captures of soldiers / armaments or NPCs.
You must have a melee layer, support layer is optional. There are no penalties to not having a support layer but you can't execute support layer tactics without officers in there and if you do have officers but fall to 0 soldiers, tactics are not executed.
There will not be any conditions submitted with battle. No if my supplies fall below 50 do this or that. Simply submit tactics and hope for the best.
Cooperation has been added back in, you may choose to support another player's attack or reinforce a neighboring players defense.
In battle, casualties are determined through battle stats. Below is a list and definition of them:
Soldiers: If melee soldiers reach 0, you lose. They also influence amount of casualties caused. Can be damaged by spy operations.
Armaments: If you have a 1 for 1 ratio with soldiers, you gain +25 attack. Can be damaged by spy operations.
Melee Attack: Uses Melee Commander's COM and MIG, has supplies as a factor and armaments can add up to 25 points.
Support Attack: Uses Support Commander's COM and ING, has supplies as a factor and armaments can add up to 25 points.
Melee Defense: Uses Melee Commander's COM and JUD and training can add up to 25 points.
Support Defense: Uses Support Commander's JUD and ING and training can add up to 25 points.
Speed: Represents each army's reaction time. This is important when determining the order of effectiveness tactics as well as attacks. Because casualties are applied after each attack, side that goes second has less troops to attack with. Number of soldiers, morale and supplies determine speed of an army (layers have same speed).
Training: Sets morale, so if you have 50 training, you'll have 50 morale. Also gives up to 25 points to defense, if you have 100 training.
Morale: Direct translation from training. Affects directly effectiveness recuperation and someone with 0 effectiveness will fail his tactics. Also influences speed of the army. Can be damaged by spy operations.
Supplies: Starts at 100. Influences attack stat in battle. Can be damaged by spy operations. Cannot go over 100 to affect attack in a positive way, can go over 100 to counter-act tactics that reduce supplies.
Effectiveness: Each officer has his own effectiveness and it starts at 100. Using tactics reduces this, some tactics provide a boost to it while others damage it. Each turn, each officer recuperates some based on their CHA stat and morale. It has a direct impact on the chance for a tactic to succeed as well as the result. So if someone is at 50% effectiveness and had 84% chance, it would become 42%. The result from it would reduce a stat by 10 would be 5 instead.
There are six engagements to run through and if the attackers fail to win in that time, defense wins and keeps their location. If attackers win, location is transferred to the leader of the battle.
Battle resolution
If neither side is able to rout the melee layer of the other after six engagements, not only do the defenders keep the location they were defending, neither side gains any spoils of war or captures.
If one side does win, all officers on the opposing side must roll against capture:
To avoid capture: MIG+ING+JUD / 2% chance to escape
Spoils
Both leaders of the battle get spoils.
You gain back a percentage of total casualties based off COM and CHA, with CHA having a greater effect.
Tactics
There are three types of tactics.
The first type is the tactic that targets effectiveness. Either you use Aid to raise one of your officer's effectiveness or you use Faze or confuse to lower an opponent's. When using these, you MUST select a target and make sure to choose the right one, no validation from the tool (if you aid an opponent, he will gain effectiveness). In this case the identified Def Stat in the reference table is the person you target.
The second type raises defense or attack. Raising would naturally target your own layer (melee or support depending on tactic chosen) while lowering would target the opponent's layer. This is automatic, no target needs to be specified. In this case the identified Def Stat in the reference table is the opposing layer this is launched from (charge would target melee commander, volley would target opposing supprot commander).
The third type is everything else like speed, morale and supplies. No target needed either, the opposing layer commander would be used for Def Stat.
Extended Battles
So if at the end of 6 engagements no winner can be declared, defender keeps its location but if the invader should invade again following month, he will automatically be the leader of the battle, circumventing the rules of random leader should there be multiple ones. Logic being they are continuing the battle from the previous month and to prevent some players from diving in with fresh forces to finish off the weakened target. This does not apply in field battles (described below), for field battles, whoever has most troops at the end of the 6 engagements moves on.
Field Battles
If more than an invader targets the same location, we will have field battles.
Spy ops are disabled for the duration of field battles (even for the final battle of attacker vs defender).
If two players attack the same target, they will need to face off before being able to continue on. If there is an uneven number of 3 or more, 2 will face off randomly, the third will fight the defender and the winners will face tournament style. Even numbers with 4 or more follow same path as first example, they are paired up until only one is left who faces the defender.
Max officers
There is no max per layer, but there is a maximum of 10 officers you can bring into battle.
--- In red are concepts introduced in V7